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Printer HP

Firmware Update Bricks HP Printers, Makes Them Unable To Use HP Cartridges (arstechnica.com) 70

Posted by BeauHD from the here-we-go-again dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: HP, along with other printer brands, is infamous for issuing firmware updates that brick already-purchased printers that have tried to use third-party ink. In a new form of frustration, HP is now being accused of issuing a firmware update that broke customers' laser printers -- even though the devices are loaded with HP-brand toner. The firmware update in question is version 20250209, which HP issued on March 4 for its LaserJet MFP M232-M237 models. Per HP, the update includes "security updates," a "regulatory requirement update," "general improvements and bug fixes," and fixes for IPP Everywhere. Looking back to older updates' fixes and changes, which the new update includes, doesn't reveal anything out of the ordinary. The older updates mention things like "fixed print quality to ensure borders are not cropped for certain document types," and "improved firmware update and cartridge rejection experiences." But there's no mention of changes to how the printers use or read toner.

However, users have been reporting sudden problems using HP-brand toner in their M232-M237 series printers since their devices updated to 20250209. Users on HP's support forum say they see Error Code 11 and the hardware's toner light flashing when trying to print. Some said they've cleaned the contacts and reinstalled their toner but still can't print. "Insanely frustrating because it's my small business printer and just stopped working out of nowhere[,] and I even replaced the tone[r,] which was a $60 expense," a forum user wrote on March 8. HP said in a statement: "We are aware of a firmware issue affecting a limited number of HP LaserJet 200 Series devices and our team is actively working on a solution. For assistance, affected customers can contact our support team at: https://support.hp.com." It's unclear how widespread the problems are.

Firmware Update Bricks HP Printers, Makes Them Unable To Use HP Cartridges More | Reply

Firmware Update Bricks HP Printers, Makes Them Unable To Use HP Cartridges

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  • Truly impressive (Score:4, Funny)

    by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 ) on Monday March 10, 2025 @04:56PM (#65224075)

    That HP can just stack one big fat L after another.

    In the reams and reams of tech companies with fuckups HP truly may be the GOAT, like at this point every one of these stories feels like they are pulling a bit on us.

    • Re:Truly impressive (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Monday March 10, 2025 @05:42PM (#65224203) Journal

      Their cartridge games are legendary. I once had an HP such that if the color cartridge was beyond its "expiration date", I'd have to confirm a warning prompt on the printer every time I printed even though I set my document to ONLY be black-and-white, using just the black cartridge, which was 95% of what I printed. And the expiration duration was always suspiciously short. I probably only used about 10% of the color cartridges. Racket!

      HP Vader meme [reddit.com]

      • Oh yeah, I have one such printer. Interestingly, if I use the drivers that came with Windows then the printer shows the message that the cartridge is expired, but still works. If I install HP drivers then the printer does not work with expired cartridges.
        So, Windows drivers it is and I used a cartridge that was 10 years past the expiry date.
        It has been a while since I used that printer (I use other printers for now), I need to get new heads for it and fix it so the heads do not dry out as fast.

        • You made the baby HP cry! Used a 10 years-old cartridge? You robbed HP, I tell ya!

          • Yeah, just kept refilling it. Eventually IIRC the pump wore out (the printer has ink cartridges that are separate from print heads, there is a little mechanical pump inside the cartridges that is operated by the printer).

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by AntronArgaiv ( 4043705 )

            Laserjet 5 here. Firmware date on the test page is 1996. HP must hate me. Serves them right for building a printer that will outlive me.

            I rebuilt it from a freebie, replaced the bad fuser ($150), replaced the chewed up drive gears ($35), maxed out the RAM ($20) and added a JetDirect 10BASE-T card ($15). It just sits in the corner, consuming 7W on standby, waiting for me to send it a print job. My Linux system acts as a print server for Apple and Windows. Still on my first cartridge after 3 years (I don't pr

            • Your repair cost was higher than my brother laser PSC with duplex, which can be accessed via network using standards for both printing and scanning...

              I have third party toner coming, and there is a firmware update pending. Thinking I'm going to do a little test before and after since they stated they are not forcing official toner on old printers. Going to find out what is what for sure...

              I had a HPLJ2100 before this. I put a roller kit in it and it still wouldn't feed paper so I scrapped it. I was never al

      • Re:Truly impressive (Score:5, Funny)

        by arglebargle_xiv ( 2212710 ) on Tuesday March 11, 2025 @04:46AM (#65224931)

        "Insanely frustrating because it's my small business printer and just stopped working out of nowhere[,] and I even replaced the tone[r,]

        You replaced the wrong part. To fix it, unplug your HP printer from the power cord, throw it in a dumpster, then plug (say) a Kyocera printer into the power cord. You've now fixed the problem, and will never have issues with HP's enshittified products again.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        I have a Ricoh colour laser, but the colour carts are empty and if it dies I'll replace it with a B&W model. Colour printing just isn't worth the hassle. If I need a photo printed I'll get it done professionally at a shop.

    • Quite a lot of people associate printers with HP and they have now trained those unfortunate souls to not just expect less but expect to be fucked with in new and interesting ways all the time, and because they associate HP with printers, they figure this is just the way it is.

      This has perversely created a loyal customer base: HP has found a group of people who will continue to but HP no matter what, and as a result HP can do what they like.

      Next up: it will use up all your ink (and paper) by printing full p

      • To be fair back in "the day" HP was the quality printer brand which is even more gross that they traded those decades of good reputation for bullshit like this which really, it feels like HP should have burned that good rep a long while ago.

        I suppose Brother could really use the HP PR team keeping that business afloat.

      • 20 years ago I worked in retail selling a competing brand. HP would ply store associates with gift cards and other promos for selling HP printers with computers.
        This made a strong incentive to sell HP even when you knew their ink was problematic and expensive.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by taustin ( 171655 )

      It's an amazing business model:

      1. Sell printers for less than they cost to make, and make money off the consumables.

      2. Update the firmware so the customer can't use third party toner.

      3. Update the firmware so the customer can't use OEM toner - the part you're making money on.

      4. Profit!

      It's underpants gnomes all over again.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by msauve ( 701917 )
        They've figured out a way to sell printers as a consumable. Toner runs out or it gets a 90 day update? Buy a new one!

    • Start with a nearly $30B printing business (2008 [statista.com]), then run it into the ground for for almost two decades.

  • Good timing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Monday March 10, 2025 @05:14PM (#65224111)

    Good thing HP did away with that mandatory 15 minute wait time for tech support otherwise people would be upset with them. Oh wait.

    • People always have the option of buying a new printer instead of harassing the overworked HP support :)

    • They realized their mistake and corrected it. Now, they're not telling people about the forced 15-minute wait, they're just quietly implementing it.

  • Working as advertised. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nightflameauto ( 6607976 ) on Monday March 10, 2025 @05:14PM (#65224113)

    "improved firmware update and cartridge rejection experiences."

    It's pretty much doing exactly what they said. It "improved the cartridge rejection experience" by rejecting all cartridges, even on-brand cartridges. HP has officially done the nearly impossible, and made the update literature match the user experience. Someone should reward them for this shocking display of transparency.

  • If you can't use 3rd party ink/toner after an HP update, then having another update that won't allow HP branded ink/toner strikes me as 'a reasonable response.' And printers that won't print are most certainly secure, in that they won't inadvertently print stuff you don't want other people to see.

    It seems that 'testing' is not part of HP's software development process. At least the printers aren't suffering "rapid unscheduled disassembly" after loading the update. I guess that's coming next year.

  • DRM on cartridges (Score:5, Insightful)

    by felixrising ( 1135205 ) on Monday March 10, 2025 @05:21PM (#65224131)
    Literally how I decide which vendor to buy, those with no DRM get my business, those with DRM auto reject before purchase.

    • Literally how I decide which vendor to buy, those with no DRM get my business, those with DRM auto reject before purchase.

      Are there any left? I read Brother is going to the dark side. Who's left?

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by msauve ( 701917 )
        The Brother rumor was based on 3 year old anonymous Reddit posts taken as fact without verification by Youtube self-promoter Louis Rossman. Brother has denied the claims: "Brother firmware updates do not block the use of third-party ink in our machines. Brother printers do not intentionally degrade print quality based on whether a Brother Genuine or non-genuine ink/ toner cartridge is used." (The claim used "ink" when it was obviously referring to toner)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          The other thing is, if Brother printers had the issue, there should be way more results by now. I mean, upon hearing that Brother was doing this, there should be dozens of videos and other things of people verifying this is happening.

      • Are there any left?

        I have an Epson with ink tanks I fill manually, no way to stop me from putting whatever in there.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by flink ( 18449 )

        I believe Canon's ImageClass laser printers will just scold you, not enforce anything. I'm still on the original toner cartridge though, so I wouldn't know personally, just what I've read. It keeps popping a warning that the toner is low, but I think that's based on page count as it still prints fine.

      • Just yesterday I visited a customer's office, and they had printers from a new Chinese brand (Chinese as in designed in China and with Chinese name). They say it accepts third party toners. Of course, it might send to the CCP every page you've printed, and refuse to print anything that contains the words "Tiananmen square", so it depends on what are the user's priorities :)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Gilmoure ( 18428 )

        Anyone know how Phaser printers are doing?

        My 10 year old Xerox Phaser 6500/N Color Laser Printer is still going strong, with 3rd party color toner cartridges.

      • What about Lexmark? I have 2 of their laser printers; one 25 yrs old. Never had any issues with 3rd party toner on the old one. The new one hasn't cycled it's original toner yet so I don't know about it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sique ( 173459 )
      I'm still printing with an HP, but in my case, it's a 4050TN. Still prints fine, new cartridges are cheap, and you can get spares on eBay. Oh, and I never made a firmware update.
  • Just like when DMCA bots strike down the copyright owner's own Youtube channels.

  • Friends don't let friends buy from Hate People.

  • Wouldn't it be funny if third party cartridges started working? Say if someone transposed "true" and "false" deep in the code...

  • Because, like any consumer device these days, you can just roll back the firmware. /s

  • Missed opportunity (Score:5, Funny)

    by FreeBSDbigot ( 162899 ) on Monday March 10, 2025 @05:44PM (#65224209)

    We should have wrapped Bill Hewlett and David Packard in magnets and buried them in alternator caskets. By now they're spinning in their graves so fast they could power the world.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bob_Who ( 926234 )

      ...... buried them in alternator caskets. By now they're spinning in their graves so fast they could power the world.

      That's funny!

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by sconeu ( 64226 )

      I came here to post a comment practically identical to this. Thank you.

      Does anyone else remember when HP meant "it just works", and was synonymous with "Sherman Tank" for ruggedness?

  • I will never buy anything HP ever again.

    HP printers are pure garbage. The absolute worst.

  • How many times does customer service have to explain our software to you dolts ?

    Now pay your tax and move along sheeple.

  • They are already shredding customer confidence by trying to milk every bit of profit from their printing division. I'm already telling people to stay away and if you like your friend and family you will too.

  • I just can't understand who keeps HP in business, particularly their printer division.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Yep, same here.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jonwil ( 467024 )

      I suspect their printer division survives mostly because of clueless idiots who don't know and better and buy one because its cheap or because the sales guy at the store convinces them to buy one (or because its what's in stock and available) and because of big companies that have (for whatever reason) standardized on HP printers across their company and buy a lot of printers and ink.

  • Anyway...

  • This isn't your grandpa's HP.

  • Apparently there are still some people that did not get the message...

  • I've been in the copier/printer/fax/computer business since 81. Back then a lot of copiers were liquid. This whole thing pisses me off just like they charge one price for black ink or toner, but 3-4 times as much for the Y,M,C (yellow, magenta, cyan) ink or toner. It's the same fricking thing but with a different pigment! When troubleshooting a problem, such as a spot/line/dropout on a copy, it is common to swap out one color unit for another, to see if the problem stays with the color unit or not. (we have

  • Hey, it's me, the guy who used to work in the aftermarket cartridge industry! My guess about this situation is that with this firmware upgrade HP implemented a DRM change on their printer, which rendered their own older cartridges (whose chip does not contain the new cipher) incompatible with the printers. They will handle this situation by issuing replacement cartridges to customers who will complain hard enough.

    A possibility is that one of the aftermarket's chip reverse engineering teams found the origina

  • I quit buying HP printers 10 years ago. I buy Epson's now. Both of the ones I have, have never had an issue with using re-manufactured ink cartridges or 3rd party ink cartridges. I also like that they don't use 1 cartridge for black ink and 1 for all color. They use individual cartridges for each color. So I only need to replace what is out.

  • Price of antique HP-LJ4 printers skyrockets.

  • "IPP Everywhere"

    As if there weren't already enough reasons to not by HP.

  • HP is the kind of printer you kick to the curb and don't look back.

  • If your printer prints to your satisfaction, it does not need firmware updates.

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